Ultrasonic imaging system adapted for use with ultrasonic probes having

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus employing two or more ultrasonic probes each comprising a plurality of ultrasonic transducers each for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus further comprising: a first storage means for storing only standard focus data, that is, focus data for forming received ultrasonic beams employed in a predetermined one of the ultrasonic probes; a second storage means for storing a ratio of a center frequency of the predetermined one of the ultrasonic probes to a center frequency of another one of the ultrasonic probes; and a calculation means for calculating focus data for forming received ultrasonic beams employed in the other ultrasonic probe from the standard focus data stored in the first storage means and the ratio stored in the second storage means to form an ultrasonic image from the ultrasonic waves received by the ultrasonic transducers employed in the other ultrasonic probe, wherein focus data for forming received ultrasonic beams employed in any of the ultrasonic probes is used for focusing the ultrasonic waves received by the ultrasonic transducers employed in the ultrasonic probe into pieces of digital received signal data and for delaying the pieces of digital received signal data by a predetermined delay time, and delayed pieces of digital received signal data are finally added up to form an ultrasonic image.